But the fruit oftheSpirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. –Galatians 5: 22-23

Welcome to the next installment of the Fruits of the Spirit series! I am so thankful and grateful that you have come to this site! If you’ve not been following this series thus far, please go back to the beginning and catch up!

I have a confession, first of all, I had another peace entry written, but then the shooting in the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando changed all of these things. If given guidance, I may publish that later, but I do want to re-write this entry in light of this event.

The Peace Alliance offers a few statistics on violence, some of which are listed below:

• Violence causes more than 1.6 million deaths worldwide every year. Violence is one of the leading causes of death in all parts of the world for persons ages 15 to 44

A World Heath Organization report estimates the cost of interpersonal violence in the U.S. at more than $300 billion per year.

35 percent of women worldwide — more than one in three — said they had experienced violence in their lifetime, whether physical, sexual, or both. One in 10 girls under the age of 18 was forced to have sex.

On average, the cost of violence related only to paying for police, justice, corrections and the productivity effect of violent crime, homicide and robbery is $3,257 for each U.S. taxpayer or $460 billion for the United States economy.

The 20th century was one of the most violent periods in human history. An estimated 191 million people lost their lives directly or indirectly as a result of conflict, and well over half of them were civilians

In 2005, 5,686 young people ages 10 to 24 were murdered–an average of 16 each day.

This is not an exhaustive list. I’ve just included some of the facts that really stirred my heart when I thought critically about this. When I think about violence, I think wars, I think mass casualties, I think of governments and armies. But, my thinking is skewed. If you look at the statistics, I think it’s safe to say that the large majority of violent acts occur between individuals and not in wartime.

When I meditate upon these statistics and that conclusion, I realize something very profound. Violence is not a problem of how, it’s a problem of why. Gun control is a great attempt at reducing violence, but it only takes care of the HOW, and not the WHY. Reduction in ammunition, gun buy-back problems…they all take care of the HOW we wage violence upon each other, and not curing the root of the problem.

What is the Root of Violence?

When I started to think on this topic, I decided to look back on the first violent act ever committed. So I looked to the Bible. I looked at the account of Cain and Abel. I’m not going to cite the whole story or post it here, but the basic premise of the story goes that Abel was favored. Cain got jealous because of his favor, and so he took a rock and stoned Abel to death. The violent act there was the result of human emotion given free reign over Cain’s heart. And what happened as a result? He is punished by exile.

Is the rock to blame?

No. The rock was just sitting there, minding its own business, you know…being all rock-like. Suddenly, somebody picked it up, and did something with it.

Someone had to do something.

Therefore, the root of violence is not in the guns, it is not in the weapons, it is a disease of the heart. And not only is it a disease of the heart, but it is the failure of that person to be intentional in allowing the emotions to not control oneself.

How do we solve the problem of the heart? Trust.

It’s not that easy. Like most things dealing with spiritual things, it is a discipline, a choice that you have to make, in order to grow and to be more peaceful. It is something that you have to understand what is asked of you and what is expected of you, as a believer, and as a follower of God.

When anger seeks to destroy our peace because we have been wronged against by a brother or sister, scripture is obvious, we have to trust that God will get his vengeance for us. When we take matters into our own hands, our first impulse is violence, but scripture is clear:

Hebrews 10:30-For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

Romans 12:19-Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Scripture is clear, that it is not up to us to get even, especially through violence. It is not my job and it is not your job to get even. Mother Tereasa best explains this through her quote in the following image:

When we start dealing with issues of violence, we must realize that the idea of violence and peace is an issue that is much bigger than us. It’s something that we all contribute a small part of, but as a whole, the problem of violence lies with a need for a world-wide change in the heart.

How do we see a change in the heart?

Well, there are several things, the first is major. We’ve got to be intentional about keeping close to God. That’s it. This and this alone causes the rest of the steps to fall into place. We must be intentional about prayer, worship, time with God, study of the scriptures.

The second is this: Live out what you believe. As you study in scripture, you will notice some commands, some things that God expects of us, and we must live them out, in both large ways and small. Scripture has some really prevalent truths about living with people and pursuing peace. But it’s not enough to just know what scripture tells us to do. We have to live it out.

Third, make sure the things that you advocate for, also pursues peace. If you advocate for a war to be waged, consider if that war is going to actively promote peace. Sad to say, but war for the greater good of getting to peace is still war, and it is still something that we should avoid advocating.

But….that does not fix it on a wide-scale!

You’re correct. Until all of human population sees the validity of controlling human emotions and trusting in a larger-scale move of the great deity….peace will not happen. Because it is an issue we have to fix of the hearts of men and women, there’s nothing out there that we can do to force others to turn their methods to peaceful ways. However, we can do our part in our own little worlds to bring about peace in the way we relate to each other, and by investing time in organizations and efforts to bring about change.

Some statistics from the Peace Alliance again:

Nonviolent resistance campaigns tend to succeed because nonviolent methods have a greater potential for eliciting mass participation — on average, they elicit about 11 times more participants than the average armed uprising — and because this is the source of major power shifts within the opponent regime. Mass participation that draws on diverse segments of society tends to empower and co-opt reformers while cutting off hard-liners from sources of support. When such participation is nonviolent, it increases the chances of pulling the regime’s support from the leadership, allowing security forces, economic elites and civilian bureaucrats to shift their loyalties with less fear of bloody retribution.

In West Philadephia High School, within two years of implementing a Restorative Discipline program, incidents of assault and disorderly conduct dropped more than 65%.

After the Longmont Community Justice Partnership (in Longmont Colorado) implemented its Community Restorative Justice Program, recidivism rates among youth dropped to less than 10% in its first three years.

Washington State Life Skills Training programs in schools (Social and Emotional Learning) show that for a $30 per student cost, benefits are around $1290 — a $1260 value. At the national level, benefits are estimated to be $810 per student.

A study on the cost-effectiveness of early intervention to prevent serious crime in California, showed that training for parents whose children exhibited aggressive behavior was estimated to have prevented 157 serious crimes (such as homicide, rape, arson and robbery) for every $1 million spent. In fact, training in parenting skills was estimated to be about three times as cost-effective as the so-called ‘‘three-strikes’’ law in California.

There are many more statistics like this, but the big conclusion that I can come to from these statistics is that preventative efforts work. Get involved, advocate. Don’t just stand by. Go ahead and participate in efforts that promote peace!

Author’s Note: This is the third installment in the Fruits of the Spirit Series. You can find the Introduction here and the first entry on love here.

But the fruit oftheSpirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. –Galatians 5: 22-23

The second topic or characteristic of the fruits of the spirit is joy. Joy doesn’t always mean being happy. In fact, joy as represented biblically could be defined as “Joy is a state of mind and an orientation of the heart. It is a settled state of contentment, confidence and hope. It is something or someone that provides a source of happiness.” So joy is a source of happiness, but it is not happiness itself. Instead of happiness, a good synonym for joy would be contentment, not happiness. Happiness wavers, but joy doesn’t. It’s something deeper.

For that reason, I turned to scripture and noticed several different things. I first noticed the things that can destroy our contentment, reasons to be content and how to be content.

Destroyers of Contentment:

Insecure People.It’s so easy to allow people to have the power to destroy our contentment. Living life with other people is just plain hard sometimes. People don’t always have the same goals and the same aspirations as I do. People don’t always agree with me. People are not always so easily able to swallow their pride and move on with life. Insecurity is an ill that plagues many people. Insecure people put their faith and sense of identity in other people. Unfortunately, other people are not a secure place. As one songwriter put it once “Our hells and our heavens are a few inches apart.” The true place of our security has to lie in the secure things. You don’t tie a boat to a stick in the sand, where the waves reach the stick. You tie a boat to something that can be anchored down, that cannot move. Something that is secure. People are like those sticks along the shoreline. Some small bit of turbulence or pain comes, and it’s very hard to hold on to the stick. In fact, the people we often put our security in, have their own stuff to deal with, and they can’t be the anchors for us. We have to place our trust and our security in what God says about us, and in the love of God. It is steady. It doesn’t matter what is going on, but God’s love still stands, his faithfulness is an anchor upon my heart and will not be moved. But people? They can be moved all of the time. In fact, they can get insecure, jealous and selfish too. They can lash out on us, or themselves, simply because of their insecurity. You and I cannot afford to be tossed about on the waves. James 1:2-7 says “2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” The believers of God, they need to be secure in God. They can’t waste their lives and their time by being unsteady and insecure. We must be sure.

People who are intentional about creating conflict. Sometimes, we don’t make the wisest choices with who we spend our time with. Sometimes, we surround ourselves with people who just seem to have a knack for causing all of this stress and drama. Honestly, I’m not sure why we do so! I guess it’s to keep us from being bored or something. Whatever the reason, we keep them around, and we often add fuel to the fire. I’ve tried to think and contemplate why people enjoy this drama, and I looked in First Timothy 6:5-7 and found this: “5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” As I thought and studied on this word from the Bible, I realized that perhaps the financial gain concept doesn’t just apply to money alone. I think it applies also to the concept of whatever we think will happen as a result of becoming closer to God. See, in this time period, those who had money were said to be closer to God than the poor. Of course, Jesus came along and kinda destroyed that thought, as seeing that he was homeless and all. But anyways, the people who think that whatever they’re doing gets them closer to God, are the ones that cause “righteous friction” that is constant and never-ending. For example, there are people that I do not agree with. When I was actively trying to keep these people in my life, it was difficult to maintain the peace and contentment between us, because it’s hard to remember that we don’t do anything to reserve our space in heaven, and we can’t argue our way to the pearly gates. Because in the end, we are all in the same state, barren as we came, and barren we will leave. Don’t let yourself get wrapped into the illusion that you can gain entrance just by being right or “righting” someone who I think is wrong. Usually, when I think I’m wrong, I push the issue until my point is made. That is where I am in the wrong. I’m to pursue peace and pursue contentment with things as they are. If I do not, then it robs me of my contentment.

Reasons to be Content:

The body of Christ depends on it. There are numerous joys that can occur when we are united with a body of believers. There are so many benefits from being in accord with believers. I cannot stress enough, the value of belonging and associating with believers. However, one of the temptations of being united with believers is that we often find that it is very easy to be discontent with one another. The reason for this is that it is easy for us to not remember that we are all human, and we can’t always all exceed expectations. Try as we might, our best will never be good enough. Even though we are imperfect, we are still to look past the imperfections and focus on the joys. It is easy to find discontentment. In fact, Philippians 2:1-2 says: “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.” To me, that is instructing believers that if we want to enjoy the benefits of the body of Christ, then we must also be in one accord, without divisions that are so easily to pop up when there is discontentment.

Because God has delivered us and he delivers us. Psalms are full of this theme. God delivers us. It’s not just from war, or conflicts, although those are important. Actually, we probably experience a lot of deliverance from this, more than we realize. But what we often do not realize, is that we can be delivered from harmful situations. And we can find deliverance from bad things. We can find protection. David echoes this understanding in Psalm 43, when he says:

Vindicate me, my God,
and plead my cause
against an unfaithful nation.
Rescue me from those who are
deceitful and wicked.2 You are God my stronghold.
Why have you rejected me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?3 Send me your light and your faithful care,
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.

David’s understanding of this and his reflection of his understanding is that we have a place to go, a refuge to enter into, someone who is actively on our side and is working things out for us, to help us, and to deliver us from this life and into the next. Despite how bad things get, despite how hard they may get, we have salvation, and we have ultimately, the assurance of eternity with God. And that, it should help us to last beyond the present state of being. More often than not, we forget that we will be delivered, and we focus on the bad parts of life, on the apparent futility of it all, such as David did in verse 2 and 3. But after that moment of self-pity, he ends with the image of being lifted high on the holy mountain, at the alter of God, where his home is made, where he will find peace. It’s hard to remember that. It’s hard for us to remember to focus on the fact that in the end, when it’s all over and done, the struggle we experience now is just a momentary bruise. That’s it. It’s not a broken bone, it’s a bruise. Here today, and gone tomorrow, because that’s the way that this world operates. If we could just focus on that, if we could only focus on the fact that this is all just temporary, our problems would seem not so large anymore.

Conclusions: How to Be Content

Joy is marked by contentment, in which the soul is at peace with the world and with the people that you live with. Joy is something that is hard to obtain, and I, myself, have to continuously fight with myself to keep the joy there. It’s not about happiness, because happiness is an emotion, which is as unstable as a hill on a fault line. Instead, joy is a state of being, a decision that I’ve made. We have to decide to be joyful and content in God. No one else will make this decision for us. We have to make it for ourselves. And it’s not so easy sometimes. But it is totally worth it.

So now that we see all of the benefits of contentment…how do we become content?

It’s both quite simple and very complicated.

We gotta grow. We gotta be intentional about growing closer and closer to the one that made us, and the one that sustains us. The more and more that we grow, the more and more that we’ll let go of the things and people that don’t help us be content, and the more we will chase after and find the things and people that will help us to be joyful. I cannot express enough, how we must continually pursue the things that help us to be joyful, regardless of our circumstances.

Not a new conclusion, not a new message, and not a new object for us to do.

But the fruit oftheSpirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. –Galatians 5: 22-23

Topic #1 of the Fruits of the Spirit deals with love. Honestly, I feel like the word Love is used in so many different contexts. I’m not going to make a comment on the over-use of the word love, but I will try to clearly be specific on the context that I am talking about. The kind of love that I am talking about today is love that we share between and for people, not the kind of love we have for a cheeseburger, or video games. But the kind of love that we have for others that we share our lives with, and that we run into each day.

One of the themes in scripture that I have studied the most in discipleship training deals with how the disciple of Jesus is identified through. I notice several things from scripture and I’d like to share some characteristics of that love:

Characteristics of the Love of God

God demonstrated love first.

1 John 4:9-10 says: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” God loved us first. Before anything else, before anyone else, he loved us first. That’s it. There’s no ifs ands or buts about it. The thing is, we’ve done nothing to merit or earn God’s love. At all. Period. We have nothing to brag about, as being special or unique, and so God loves us. He loves us because of who he is. It’s not in his nature to hate anyone, because he is all love.

2. God’s love does not change based on my emotions.

This is a theme throughout scripture. Before we even talk about Jesus and who Jesus is and the person of Jesus, we have to look at the overarching themes and stories of love.

One of my favorite stories in all of scripture is the story found in Hosea. If you want to look at a love story, look at Hosea. It’s a little overwhelming, particularly when you examine it in the light of God’s love for us, which it, from my understanding, is a very accurate reflection of God’s love for us, and was intended to be an allegory. Very shortly and briefly, the story of Hosea is this: Hosea is called to be a prophet, and he is instructed, by God, to marry a prostitute. He is obedient and marries Hagar. They’ve been together for a bit, and she runs back to her old life, and becomes pregnant. She does that several times, and each time, Hosea goes back and takes her back.

If I am honest, my commitment to God isn’t as steady as it could be. But instead, it rocks and rolls similarly to the ocean tides. Sometimes, it’s really rocky and windy due to a storm, and other times, it’s just cycling over and over again. But you know what? God’s commitment to me does not waver, it does not increase or decrease based on my response to God’s love. It’s not about how committed I am to God, because really, I don’t have a choice. God has already committed himself to me, and he shows this in Hosea 2:19: “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.”

This is regardless of my response. Regardless of when I run or how I run. It’s regardless of how I feel. From that, I have determined that my love for others, it must be regardless of how I feel. It must be regardless of whether my feelings are hurt or not, it must be regardless of anything. My ultimate goal has to be to love people regardless of their response. Sometimes, people can’t accept love, because of all of the ways they’ve been hurt in the past or how they preconceive that love is….but the thing is, I must love on God’s definition. And God’s definition is not like humanly definition. God’s definition is already about commitment, regardless of what I do. I’ve done nothing to deserve or earn it, but it is my joy to enjoy it, as a free gift. And that should also be our task, to show others that same type of love, regardless of who they are, their response or what they have done to us.

Therefore…..

If God is love, then we are to love others too.

It’s easier to hate people. It honestly is. It’s easy for me to write someone off instead of getting to know them. It’s easier for me to arbitrarily just decide that I don’t like someone or that I don’t want to share my life with someone, simply because of some random thing that I have decided makes a person unworthy of love. If I am honest, humanly honest, I have written off people in the past, because I decided that one aspect of them didn’t appeal to me. I decided that they were not good enough or something. Thankfully, I have learned the errors of my ways, and am maturing enough to finally realize that everyone has value and is worthy of being loved. But it takes something for you to be able to recognize that it’s not up to us to decide who gets to be loved. It’s not up to us to decide who is worthy, because all people are loved. And therefore, all people are worthy of being loved. Here’s some convicting words: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” -1 John 4:7-8.

That thought always sobers me. When we refuse to love someone, or we decide that someone is not worthy of being loved, we are not of God, and we are not a believer. That means, in previous moments where I have decided that I don’t want to love others, it means that I haven’t been of God. And anytime that I used my own reasons to justify why I am not going to love others, then I am not being who I am supposed to be, and I am not loving like I am supposed to. I am not being obedient like I am supposed to be, and I am not showing love like I am commanded to.

The fact is, the failure to love marks us as nothing but ignorant of the commandments and the person of God. When I allow politics, my personal beliefs, preferences, or what have you, to discolor my viewpoint of a person, or to prevent me from loving a person, or prevent me from making a person feel like they are loved, then I am in the wrong. I am in the entire wrong mind frame, and I am in the wrong.

It’s hard to accept that. It’s hard to be honest with myself and it’s hard for me to call myself out on my wrongness, particularly when I think that I have a good enough of an excuse to justify my hatred or dis-love of others. I think the reason that the writer of 1 John was so severe, was because he recognizes the weight of love, and the impact and power of love. See, God endured Calvary for the weight of love. And so, we should also reflect that weight. We should also be mindful of the saving power of love, because it is love that allowed us to be redeemed and ransomed.

2. God’s love makes us sincere in love.

It’s easy to say that we love someone, but it’s much harder to actually do it. It’s easy to do when the people we love, love us back. But when they don’t meet our “standards?” When they don’t meet our expectations? But what if they hurt us? What if they upset us? What if they do something wrong?

The problem with that assumption, is that we are assuming that love has something to do with us and our emotional state of being. But that is a lie. See, love should be shown regardless of what we feel or our personal state of being.

How can you do that? Honestly, it’s very difficult. But that’s part of sanctification (the process of growing closer with God), because the more that I am close to God, the more that I can and am able to become more like God. And the more I become like God, the more that I can love people like God does. Scripture says: “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.” -1 Peter 1:22

We can only love, like God does, when we have been growing, and when we know a thing or two about God’s love. Then, we can obey the truth, and have sincere love for others. Sincerity is something that is rare in our world today, because it’s hard to take people at anything other than face value, or to imagine that they don’t have ulterior motives. The people who follow God and have a relationship with God, should love sincerely, without reserve. When we fail to do so, then we don’t accurately reflect the love of God as it truly is and reflect the experience of God’s love for us.

But, the question remains: What is sincere love?

This is a very stereotypical answer, but let’s look at 1 Corinthians 13. “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

To answer that, very quickly, I want to pull out three more additional points about love:

If I am spiritual at all, but I do not love, then my works are worth nothing, and I am not reflecting the grace and love that has ransomed me.

Love is a very tall order. It moves beyond my own mere human definition, and into something else, something motivated by more than just selfish desires.

As I grow, my love will mature and change. And if it doesn’t, then I don’t know love at all.

Conclusions

The first thing that I’ve realized through studying these passages, is that I have a lot of ways to grow in love. But, thank God, how I have grown! It’s always enlightening and encouraging to see where you have grown and matured! It’s always a burst of gratitude when I see where God has moved and changed me, how he has changed me.

And if love of God changes me and allows me to mature, how also, could my love for others help to grow others? If love from God helps me to grow, then it could also help others to grow, and how I could be a beacon of hope and love for others, especially those who need it.

I don’t get to decide and define who God loves, and I don’t get to decide and define who is worthy of my love, and I don’t get to limit love at all.

Walking through a store, you can’t help but to hear the random cry of “but I want it!” The scream is shrill, piercing, and you know it is a small boy or girl that is screaming for something. Then, I hear “But you have so many other toys at home.” “It doesn’t matter, I want it!” The child probably has an already over-flowing toy box that isn’t able to contain all of the toys. There’s a mountain of toys in another room, sprawled out everywhere. You can’t walk through the living room without stepping on a matchbox car, and you can’t take a bath without finding a rubber toy floating in the tub with you. There’s legos on the kitchen table, and a discarded bike lying out on the carport. The fact of the matter is not what toy brings the child the most enjoyment and allows the child to disappear into the wonderland of imagination to create stories of adventure and drama, heroes and villains, cowboys and Indians, car chases and rescue vehicles. Instead, the focus is on having the newest, or having the “mostest” toys. As we grow up, we pride ourselves as being able to depart from the materialism. We pride ourselves on being able to purchase things that are needed and we balance needs with wants. We buff ourselves up, thankful that we are able to depart from that mentality.

When we go into our spirituality, we are taught that less is more, and that we should not seek the material things. Where that place of the heart is concerned, we spend our time at spiritual events and we focus on the activities.

In a world where things are so quantity-driven, we as humanity have been chasing the things that give us a sense of quality. We like the nicest and next big thing and look to the things that give us a sense of identity and give us the results that we want. And the church is no exception to that. The church is no departure away from that sense of status and it is no departure away from the quantity-ness of our society. The life of a Christian is no exception to the quantity trend. We hold programs and activities designed to attract people, we count our “visitors” that darken the doorways and we keep record of our attendance numbers. We count ourselves successful when we have more people in the church today than we did a year ago, have raised more than our missions offering goal, or exceed the expected donations for a random drive of clothing or food. We congratulate ourselves when we find value in numbers.

Unfortunately, we are never called to be concerned about quantity of people. We are not called to keep attendance records or to programming and events. We are not called to spend our time and efforts focusing on how we can grow our church numbers. We are not called to make these things our focus and priority. We are not called to make material or worldly growth a priority. So many people would give you the statement to say that checking attendance and keeping record of numbers are not bad or sinful. However, if I am honest, I’m not going to say that, because doing so tends to forget the individual behind the number, and it erases people of their individuality and their humanity and gives them the label of “visitor #2” instead of John. It’s so easy when we do that, to just count it as a victory to add to the cause, instead of a person. And when we do that, we forget to see the people as people, and we don’t invest in them.

We are not called, as a people, to numbers. We honestly aren’t called to keep record of attendance, we are not called to keep track of numbers. We aren’t supposed to worry about all that. Instead, we are called to something more. We are called to nothing higher than our own personal growth of ourselves, to the side of the God who loves us and who shares his life to us. We are not called to the growth of the church, but to the relationship that we have with our Creator. Never, does God say to us, to focus on the growth of the body of Christ, but he says to us, “Come near to me.” He calls to us “Come close to me.” “Know me.”

One of the most meaningful passages of scripture continue to be brought up time and time again recently. I’ve continually heard and re-heard these verses. In my college years, I spent some time in an in-depth study of this chapter as part of some discipleship training I experienced while serving in a church in Boone. The passage that this training was based upon is as follows:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

-John 15:1-8 (NIV)

I won’t delve into an in-depth discussion or exposition of this passage, but I think that it is clear that it is our duty to remain close to the true vine, and to continue to grow in him. As we grow, we go through seasons of our lives where we are pruned, or cut back, painfully exposed to the elements of the world that is designed to help us grow.

The purpose of our pain, and our existence is that we produce fruit.

The modern church seems to think that fruit is in numbers. The modern church seems to think that success is fruit, and that as long as we are adding new people to the body of Christ, then we are growing and we are producing fruit.

Nowhere in the passage does it tell us to add more people to the belief of Jesus. Instead, it is all about us abiding in God, and finding ourselves and our identity in Jesus. Instead, it’s all about remaining connected. It’s about discipleship, the intentional seeking of a closer relationship with the Creator through study, meditation upon scriptures, and through other experiences in which God communicates to us. It’s about us seeking God and being discontented with just meaningless things, but seeking to be changed and transformed by the power of God. It’s not about numbers. It’s all about personal growth and growing intimacies with God.

But…it tells us to produce fruit? What is fruit? Is it apples? Oranges? Well yes, those are fruits, but this is not the kind of fruit that the scripture talks about. In the context of the scriptures, it doesn’t even really talk about the expansion of the faith or missions. Later in the scriptures, Jesus talks about how the disciples are to remain in love and they are to back that love up with actions. And that, my friend, is all about discipleship. Jesus even tells them how they are to grow and how they are to mature, and it is because….

“When the Friend I plan to send you from the Father comes—the Spirit of Truth issuing from the Father—he will confirm everything about me. You, too, from your side must give your confirming evidence, since you are in this with me from the start.”

-John 15:26-27

So, basically, he says that the disciples will be given a spirit that will not only confirm everything that Jesus said he was, but he will also come, and give you the power to produce fruit and will produce fruit in your life too!

When I first considered the question of “What is fruit?” God gave me a new awareness of what “fruit” is considered. It’s not numbers, but instead…

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

We don’t see fruit that way, do we? Generally, fruit, as Jesus was saying, I don’t think he was talking about numbers or growth. I think he was talking more about discipleship. He was talking about how we grow nearer and nearer to the father, and as we grow nearer, then we embody the fruits of the spirit. And that, my friend, is fruit.

That is what we are called to produce.

Not numbers, not church growth, but individual, spiritual fruits, that allow us to live in relationships with each other.

When we do that? That’s when the church numbers start to grow. That’s when people experience the saving love of God. That’s when we start to make a difference in our world.

I feel called to start a series, about the fruits of the spirit. In this process, I will examine all of the fruits of the spirit, using scripture, personal experiences and concepts to confirm that which I think that the Christian is called to produce in their life as fruit. I will be examining each of the fruits of the spirit and will be using discussions. I don’t know how often I will post, but I will finish this series. Stay tuned for more updates!